Just coming out of our SAP EC&O Industry Value Network Forum in London yesterday, and I had the fortunate opportunity to hear and learn from some of UK and Europe’s leading Engineering and Construction companies. The event was very successful (watch for a full update on the UK event soon), yet many of these customers plan to attend SAPPHIRE NOW in Madrid too. I look at this as a real positive for our Forums where customers, partners, SAP industry, solution and technology experts convene to share, connect and take away knew actionable information. With SAPPHIRE NOW Madrid following so soon (Nov 13-16) , I’m impressed that these IT and Business area owners continue to engage with their SAP industry peer community on a repeated basis.

But more so, I think there is so much more to talk about, learn, see, try and discuss these days. As was the case in our UK event, anyone planning to attend SAPPHIRE NOW Madrid will be able to learn about new enhancements (available soon) developed around our core construction solution, where SAP is putting projects in the center of the entire services lifecycle. And, BIM. Now with SAP Visual Enterprise, our Industry Business Unit is fast at work exploring and developing SAP Visual Enterprise for EC&O to help bridge the gap between design and construction. I watched a demo and it’s really, really impressive and I think our customers had a similar reaction. Here is a Youtube overview of SAP Visual Enterprise. It’s not construction specific, but once I can share what I saw in the demo, I’ll be sure to have it posted to online, provided that is allowed.

Mobility? Industry-based analytics? Yes and yes! SAPPHIRE NOW Madrid attendees will be able to learn about innovations in these areas too, and much more across the entire event. As I was speaking with one customer yesterday, I learned he will be attending SAPPHIRE NOW for the first time. I grinned and told him “get ready, it will knock your sock off!”